The risk is that if the Wii U completely flops then Nintendo may be temped to pull a Sega and drop out of the hardware business, releasing their games on Playstation and Xbox.

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After one flop with a bajillion dollars in the bank, the 3DS being really successful and them winning the last generation? If companies would be so quick to drop out of the console hardware business we'd all be playing PC games exclisively by now.

The risk is that if the Wii U completely flops then Nintendo may be temped to pull a Sega and drop out of the hardware business, releasing their games on Playstation and Xbox. I don't think that's too likely, but these are strange times in the console business, and if they think they can make more money with that strategy then they may go for it.

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Nintendo has said in the past that they won't do that, that they'd just drop out of the home console business altogether instead. (They'd still have their strong handheld business to sustain them.)

After one flop with a bajillion dollars in the bank, the 3DS being really successful and them winning the last generation? If companies would be so quick to drop out of the console hardware business we'd all be playing PC games exclisively by now.

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It sounds crazy at first, but it may make sense in the long run. Console manufacturers generally don't make money selling consoles, they make money licensing and selling games. Nintendo has a poor track-record with third party publishers ever since the N64 for a variety of reasons, so they don't make as much money through licensing as MS or Sony. They made an effort to win over third parties with the Wii U, but that didn't seem to work out. Since the Wii U is being sold at a slight loss/small profit, Nintendo is going to make most of their money from first party games, but the profitability of those games will be impacted by their low install base. If the PS4 and the XBO have larger install bases than the Wii U, it may make more financial sense for Nintendo to release their games on those platforms.

When the next generation of home consoles come around (if game consoles are still relevant by then) Nintendo will have several options:

1) Try to compete against MS/Sony/Apple/Google/Honda/whoever directly. The N64 and Gamecube failed at this.
2) Try a wildcard approach, which was successful for the Wii but not so much for the Wii U.
3) Drop out of the hardware business and release their games on other platforms.
4) Devote their resources to fighting off the alien invasion.

Nintendo has said in the past that they won't do that, that they'd just drop out of the home console business altogether instead. (They'd still have their strong handheld business to sustain them.)

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That's an odd stance for them to take. I can understand why they want to stay in the home console business, but if things got bad enough that they left it I don't see why they'd turn down the opportunity to still make the games. There'd still be an audience for Mario games. I've never been a much of a Nintendo fan (I was a Sega kid) so I'm not willing to buy a Wii U for a handful of Nintendo exclusives, but if their games were on Xbox/Playstarion I'd be temped to pick them up.

Just thought of something. Maybe this is MS's way of getting people over to play on PCs? Silly, I know, but it definitely seems like MS doesn't want people to play console games anymore. But on the other hand, they haven't exactly made a big push for PC gaming as of late either, so maybe it's just a crazy idea.

As for Nintendo, I can understand it. They have too much pride and the last thing they'd want to see is their franchises on other consoles. It would be too humiliating for them. Sega was able to as they had more of a history with arcade games and coin operated games in general, so it was easier for them to refocus.

Nintendo has said in the past that they won't do that, that they'd just drop out of the home console business altogether instead. (They'd still have their strong handheld business to sustain them.)

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That's an odd stance for them to take. I can understand why they want to stay in the home console business, but if things got bad enough that they left it I don't see why they'd turn down the opportunity to still make the games. There'd still be an audience for Mario games. I've never been a much of a Nintendo fan (I was a Sega kid) so I'm not willing to buy a Wii U for a handful of Nintendo exclusives, but if their games were on Xbox/Playstarion I'd be temped to pick them up.

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It is the stance of a company at no risk of having to follow it. Nintendo is fine even if the Wii U is a complete bust. At this point they can study the XBO and PS4, figure out their next course and put something out ahead of the next generation with several years to spare.

The mobile market is where they're strongest though, and they should probably focus on it lest phones and tablets draw away too many of their more casual customers. A 'Game Boy Phone' (4-5" slider phone version of the DS perhaps) is probably the best way to do this.

No it doesn't make sense.. Gates is an engineer like Wozniak (who actually did the work behind the scenes for Jobs) whereas Jobs is the leading man, the main star who provides the charisma and the (admittedly) cool ideas and who understands the needs of the people before they know it.

I think he might be having trouble believing this is even happening. He's always struck me as someone who's able to figure out what works and what doesn't and wasn't so against the consumer as what we're seeing now. Sure, he's made some bad decisions during his career, but nothing on this scale. If anything, if he were still at the helm of the company, I don't think he'd let it happen. He's too much of a technology geek himself.

Jesus Christ.. i know that MS and XBO have it hard publicitywise nowadays (and they are to blame for a good part of it) but this is brutal

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Considering the way the internet has reponded to the Xbox One and all its DRM i have to say it's not looking good for MS, i know the Xbox one will still sell in large numbers but it looks like Sony are going to start running when they hit the ground, whereas MS will smash into the floor and spend a large amount of time laid up before going through rehab to learn to stand and walk again.